Don't Worry; Everything is Fine
by Gridmaster
Summary: Josh is in the hospital, and something's not ringing true...


# Don't Worry; Everything is Fine

White. Everything was white, and bright, so bright. His eyes hurt from the brightness of it all. He tried to move his arm, to shield his eyes, but it wouldn't move, wouldn't try to protect him from the brightness.

Josh groaned and slowly opened his eyes. A fluorescent light buzzed above him. He turned his head from side to side, taking in his surroundings. _Hospital. I'm in a hospital. Again. Wonder if they have frequent visitor discounts.  
_ "You're awake," a nurse commented, wheeling a cart in. "Doctor'll be glad to hear that. You were pretty broken when they brought you in; you've come a long way, but you still have a lot of healing to do."  
"What happened?" he asked the woman, who was busy taking several items off the cart.  
"You don't remember?" she asked, watering the flowers on his bedstand. "If you don't remember, it's for Doctor to tell you."  
"Where's my dad?"  
"You'll see him soon." She checked the level in his IV, then patted his hand. "Don't worry; everything is fine."

"What happened? Why am I here?" Josh demanded when the doctor came in.  
"You were in an accident." The man moved silently, checking Josh's chart. "She was right; you _have_ made a great deal of progress. You've healed much more quickly than most of our patients. You still have a long way to go, though."  
"I don't understand! I feel fine. Where's my dad?"  
"You'll see him soon," the man reassured him. "You still have a lot of work to do." The doctor patted Josh's hand much like the nurse had. "Don't worry; everything is fine."

Josh stared at the ceiling. He'd been in this hospital for three days, as far as he could tell. No one would tell him how long he'd been unconscious, just repeating, "You were broken; you needed to heal." And he _still_ hadn't seen his dad._  
Something's not right here. There's flowers, but no cards. The blinds are open, but all I can see is brightness. There's no phone in here. And Dad hasn't been in. Neither has Rachel, or Berto, or even Cat. You'd think one of them would have stopped in, seen how I was doing._  
He turned his head, looked at the window on the far wall. _Maybe if I can get to it, I can see something. Maybe I'm just on a tall floor, nothing to see from this angle._ He pushed himself into a sitting position, noticing his body didn't act like he'd been in bed for three days. Grabbing the IV pole, he wheeled it towards the window.  
Josh put one hand on the windowsill and with the other, parted the long vertical blinds. He pressed his forehead to the clear, cool glass and peered outside.  
Nothing. Just that same brilliant brightness. _This building can't be above the cloudline, can it?_

Josh wanted answers. The nurse and the doctor had been in and out of his room, the same routine each time, periodically through the past few days. Everything was so damn cryptic. No one would tell him anything.  
The doctor came in again. Josh was ready. Leaping from his bed, he grabbed the sides of the doctor's lab coat. "I want to know what's going on!" he demanded.  
The doctor just smiled and loosened Josh's grip. "Everything is fine," he told the boy. "You've healed. There are people waiting to see you."  
"Finally." Josh snatched up the clothing the doctor handed him, dressed, and followed the man out of the room.

Josh found himself standing in a green field, stone monuments dotting the landscape. "I know this place…" he whispered, turning around to see the doctor. The man was gone. He turned back around and saw four familiar figures standing not far in front of him. The patch of field they stood by was overturned, a wound in the bright green.  
"Rachel…Berto…Cat…_Dad_…." Josh started to approach them, but something held him back. "What…why can't I reach them?" he screamed.  
"You don't belong there anymore," a soft voice told him. Josh whirled to see two figures, one, a woman he recalled from flashes of dream; the other, a man he'd last seen in an old mission log.  
"Mother…Father?"  
"Yes, Josh, it's us," the woman, Molly McGrath told her grown son. "You belong with us now."  
"But…the hospital, the doctor the nurse…"  
"The hospital is how you saw where wounded souls go to heal before ascending," Jim McGrath told Josh. "I saw it the same way, acted the same way you did. But I was still there longer. You were lucky; most of your wounds had healed in life."  
"But…I'm not ready," Josh whispered. He turned back to see his friends, his _family_, standing by…"Is that…mine?"  
"I'm sorry, Josh," Molly told him. Her arms twitched, as if she longed to run to her son, to comfort him, but she stood still, knowing that only he could come to her.  
"You have a choice, son. To come with us, to ascend, or…."  
"Or?"  
"Or you can stay on Earth, a lost soul. You'll be able to see them, but not touch them, not interact with them, and when they pass on, you'll still be on Earth," Jim told him.  
Josh just stared at Rachel, at the unfamiliar tears he saw wetting her cheeks. "But if I go with you…?"  
"If you come with us, you'll see them again, and it won't seem like more than a moment you're apart."  
"How can I believe you?"  
Molly's arms twitched again. "I can't answer that, Josh. Only you can make the choice. Ascend or stay, it's up to you."  
Josh watched as Rachel kissed her fingertips, then pressed them to the carved name on the marble. She was the last to leave; Josh itched to follow her. But his mother…her words struck him as true. He stood his ground, watched until Rachel drove away, then turned to his parents.  
"I'm ready."


End file.
